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Friday, April 20, 2007

Mac 'n Cheese with Sausage if you please...

I went in for the ultrasound this morning and the doctor called back with the results much quicker than I thought they would! They said that even though there is nothing to worry about, they had set up an "emergency" referral for a stomach doctor early next week. Hmm... what a way to leave me hangin' for the weekend! Blah!

I'm feeling better than I did yesterday, so it looks to me like it was just some stomach bug and it is finally letting go - hopefully we can start getting back to normal! Thank you for all of the well wishes - I've been quite anxious to get back in the kitchen and start whippin' up some goodies to talk about!

While I probably should have done something plain like some rice or soup for dinner tonight, I decided to make a new recipe I found while I was catching up on magazines since I've not been able to do anything. I chose this recipe for Stovetop Sausage Mac and Cheese mainly because it did not have a lot of spices and looked to me like it would be on the bland side. For the sausage, I used a sun-dried tomato and mozzarella stuffed chicken sausage (not spicy at all though) that we lightly browned to start us off. To the browned sausage we added milk and a couple tablespoons of flour to thicken - once it came to a boil, we stirred in a selection of cheeses. We added sharp cheddar, Monterey Jack and while the recipe called for cream cheese, I used a few wedges of garlic and herb Laughing Cow cheese instead. We've been using them as a spread for Kashi's TLC crackers for years, but have begun adding them to creamy sauces for an extra silky feel. The only seasonings called for were a small amount of onion powder and garlic salt in the recipe - I kept this as is since I was trying to keep it fairly bland, but wanted some flavor.

Once the cheese had a chance to fully melt into the sauce, we added cooked whole wheat macaroni and the dish was pretty much complete. It only took maybe 15-20 minutes to throw together and we both thought it was pretty good! The dish was creamy and cheesy without being too heavy. I would probably think about adding something else to help the dish come into its own though... either a bit more spice or even some buttered and toasted fresh breadcrumbs to be tossed on top for a special finish?

6 comments:

Joe - Glad you're feeling a bit better. I've been MIA, so missed that you've been sick. No fun at all! Especially when you love to cook. ;) We had a stomach thing in our family right after Easter, but not as bad as yours sounds! Take care.......